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September 2007

September 24, 2007

I'm from Chicago. I'm typing this post about two hours after my beloved Chicago Bears just took a good ol' fashioned beating from the Dallas Cowboys.

If you turn on talk radio the solution to the Bears woes is simple . . .

"Change the quarterback."

This sounds like a great solution. It is logical and it is something immediate. One day you have one quarterback, the next day you have another. Instant change is awesome.

But of course it isn't that simple. In fact if you look at the Bears game you see more problems . . .

What about the poor running game?

What about the wide receivers dropping passes?

What about the offensive line failing to block?

Changing the quarterback may solve one problem, but it doesn't solve all the problems.

Here is how this relates to you . . .

When I work with nonprofits and I ask them their biggest problem it is always . . .

"We can't raise enough money."

Again, sounds logical. It even allows for easy assignment of blame ("fire the ED", "find new Board Members")

But again, it isn't always that simple . . .

What about the fact that your nonprofit's mission is 20 years old and no longer relevant now?

What about the fact that you have some much programming that no one can understand what your nonprofit does or why it is important?

What about the fact that you pay your staff so poorly that you either can't hire skilled workers or you have such high turnover that you can't complete major projects?

Like a good football team a nonprofit organization is an interrelated and interdependent body. You can't always pin trouble on one particular part of the team. Sometimes you have to fix three of four different departments at the same time for everything to run smoothly.

September 17, 2007

An effective nonprofit organization is always "on message" meaning that everyone who works for the organization is about to talk about what the mission of the company is and why it is important. Here are some steps that will help your nonprofit to be on the same page.

1. Translate your mission into a language everyone can understand.

I was the ED of a theatre for three years. One day a woman asked me about my theatre. I proudly recited our mission . . .

"We are an ensemble group that produces definitive and transformative works spawned from the African Diaspora."

She smiled and then asked "What exactly does that mean?"

I was stumped. This woman wasn't a theatre person like me. Words like ensemble and Diaspora had no meaning for her. All they did was confuse her. Why is that a problem?

Because . . . CONFUSED PEOPLE DON'T GIVE.

They don't give money. They don't volunteer.

So your first task is to take your mission and give it to someone who knows NOTHING about your work. Have them ID every word in the mission that is unclear or vague.

Then replace every unclear word with a statement or phrase that makes it clearer. You don't need to change the formal mission statement, just the words you use to talk about the mission.

Here's an example of how this exercise worked out for me when I tried it with the mission statement given above.

The unclear words were "ensemble", "transformative", "definitive" and "diaspora".

After some time, this is what I came up with . . . .

Ensemble became group of actors

Definitive meant we wanted any particular show we did to be the best possible version of that work. This helped to explain why we spent a signficant amount of our budget on things like actor salaries, costumes, set design, etc.

Transformative meant that we did plays that made you think because getting you to think is the first step to transforming and expanding your viewpoint about Africans and African-Americans.

For the purposes of our mission statement, Diaspora essentially meant a body of work.

After this exercise if someone asked me about our theatre I may have said something like

"We are a group of actors dedicated to doing thought provoking work with the highest artistic quality possible. Our plays talk about African-American culture as well as other African cultures."

That may be a perfect translation of the mission, but it does help people to better understand what we do.

Translating your mission can be a lot of work but it can have a huge payoff in the long term.

2. Come up with two or three reasons why your mission is important to the general public.

Remember, just because YOU think something is important, doesn't mean the rest of the world sees things the same way. So you may have to explain why what your nonprofit does matters.

The goal here is to be brief but effective. If you have a good stat that helps to explain your importance, this is a great time to use it. For example . . .

"Our homeless shelter is one of only three in the city that focuses on serving single mothers and their children"

Once you come up with your reasons, add it to your translated mission statement.

3. Train your nonprofit to talk about your company using the same language.

Before an athlete or CEO goes before the press they have been well prepared about what message they want to get across to the public. This isn't because these CEO's are not smart people, it is because in the chaos of the real world it can be very easy to say "the wrong thing" and cause your company harm.

On a smaller scale, this can happen to your nonprofit. Imagine the confusion if your Board President describes your company in a different way then your ED.

So once you have figured out a good way to talk about your mission (Steps 1 and 2), share it with EVERYONE from the Board President to the person who answers your phone.

More importantly, insist (yes INSIST) that they talk about the mission in the approved way and the approved way ONLY.

Some people will balk at this. Insist anyway. A nonprofit that speaks with the same language isn't a bunch of robots. They are a group that presents themselves as a unified bunch to the world and there is tremendous power in that unity.

Need some advice, wisdom or other techniques on how to clarify your communications? You can visit some great websites like NonprofitPR.com or The Getting Attention Blog

September 11, 2007

Some of you may recall that I had the privilege of sitting on a panel for the Illinois Arts Alliance a few months back. The panel was on leadership in nonprofit organizations. The information presented in the panel has now been summarized into a handy PDF document. Download the_choice_to_lead.pdf

September 05, 2007

"Fundraising is the ultimate test of an organization's mission and how the organization is perceived in the community."

- Dawn Rains "The Art of Governance" (page 204)

It is rare to find a person who really loves fundraising. Even for the best of us, the idea of going out and convincing people to donate to a worthy cause can cause a bit of stress. What I love about Dawn's quote is that it reminds us that fundraising is not a distraction from the "real work" an organization does . . . it is very much a vital part of that real work.

Your ability to build support and a community around the work you do is as important . . . maybe even more important . . . then the actual work itself.